The British GT Championship battle between luxury supercar
manufacturers Bentley and Lamborghini will be decided at Donington
Park on 23-24 September, with Nottingham rockstar racer Rick
Parfitt Jr leading the standings heading to the final round.

British GT is one of Europe's top sports car racing series, with
Bentley and Lamborghini joined by evocative manufacturers including
Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Lotus, McLaren and Mercedes Benz
among others.

Parfitt Jr, who follows in his famous father's footsteps as a
rock band frontman, will be hoping to clinch the title at his local
venue, sharing a British-built Bentley GT3 car with former single
seater ace Seb Morris.

"I feel at home at Donington" Parfitt comments. "We moved to
Nottingham fairly recently, so I can pop over to the circuit for
cups of tea and a burger and take a look at whatever is going on. I
also played with my band here at MotoGP a few years back, which was
great fun. From a racing perspective, I have done well in all of
the categories of racing I have competed in here and been on the
podium on most visits to the track."

Any thoughts on fast food will be put aside on 23-24 September
though, as Parfitt faces the challenges of overcoming a 20-second
success penalty during the two hour race, earned as a result of
winning the previous British GT race at Brands Hatch. "It's going
to be hugely difficult" he admits. "Whilst it is amazing to be
coming into my home race in the leading squad for the championship
decider, the success penalty will for sure make it difficult. We're
going to need to be as tactical as possible and go as hard at it as
we can straight from the off. Qualifying will be important and at
the start of the race we will need to push like crazy and get out
front to build a gap. Obviously our ultimate aim is to finish ahead
of the Lamborghini, but we will have to see."

Parfitt and Morris hold a slender 10.5 point lead at the top of
the standings, but with 37.5 on offer for the race winners, the
title race could yet swing back towards Lamborghini duo Jon Minshaw
and Phil Keen. Parfitt though thinks that both the Bentley and
Lamborghini cars should be evenly matched at Donington, making the
decider potentially even tenser. "We have an advantage in tyre
performance. Our two main competitor cars, including the
Lamborghini, are certainly quicker on brand new tyres, but when the
initial grip goes, our tyres perform better than the rest of the
grid. We also perform well on a track with long sweeping curves, so
the double hairpins at Donington will kill us, but we have a
traction upgrade for this event so we hope these issues will be
less obvious."

British GT cars are amongst the most impressive racing machines
to take to any racing circuit in the UK. With power outputs of over
500 horsepower and a wide range of engine varieties, the soundtrack
to the racing is more than enough to get hairs standing on end, as
Parfitt explains: "The cars are amazing, they are incredible bits
of machinery as well as being beautiful and aspirational; in fact
they are everything you dream of as a 13-year-old boy. They sound
amazing - the Ferrari screams and the Bentley sounds like thunder -
and from a driver's perspective, when you have such a big heavy and
powerful car on the edge of its adhesion around the corners, the
sensation is awesome."

And Parfitt, who has performed live alongside legendary acts
including Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Bryan Ferry, Spandau Ballet
and Status Quo admits that the thrills gained from racing are
similar to those when appearing on stage: "I have a very similar
sense of nervousness actually. I am very competitive and have this
same feeling during qualifying as I do at the start of a gig;
winning over an audience appeals to my competitive side. Whether I
am behind the wheel or the microphone, I give 110% every time, and
expect the same from my band members as I do from everyone at Team
Parker [the team, behind the Bentley GT3 machine].

"Feedback from the team via radio when you are on track and the
audience during a gig drives you on, and you can use tricks of the
trade in either situation to go quicker or endear yourself to the
crowd. I never give up either on the race or the gig, and always
come off the stage and the track knowing that I have done
absolutely the best I can do."

For Pariftt to even be racing at all is a minor miracle. The
42-year-old is an open sufferer of Chrohn's Disease, which affects
him while behind the wheel. "I am open about it simply because I
want to share the ups and downs of the disease. I want to
acknowledge it, yet still always try my best whatever the
circumstances. At both the Silverstone and Oulton Park rounds this
year I was suffering with bad flare ups. On a physical level it was
agony getting into the car whilst mentally it really got me down,
but I refuse to let it stop me from aiming at my dreams and
striving to do my best. I think it's also important to show that
everyone has their trials; from the outside I guess my life looks
fairly charmed - racing car driver by day and rock and roll
performer by night - so even more reason to share the tricky bits
of life as well."

The Bentley man has aspirations to race at the famous Le Mans 24
Hours in France and to perform at Glastonbury. Should he win the
British GT title at Donington Park, he could be one giant step
closer to achieving his racing dream.